Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) that can effectively harvest biomechanical energy and sense multifunctional posture and movement have a wide range of applications in next-generation wearable and portable electronic devices. Hence, bulk production of fine yarns with high triboelectric output through a continuous manufacturing process is an urgent task. Here, an ultralight single-electrode triboelectric yarn (SETY) with helical hybridized nano-micro core-shell fiber bundles is fabricated by a facile and continuous electrospinning technology. The obtained SETY device exhibits ultralightness (0.33 mg cm-1), extra softness, and smaller size (350.66 μm in diameter) compared to those fabricated by conventional fabrication techniques. Based on such a textile-based TENG, high energy-harvesting performance (40.8 V, 0.705 μA cm-2, and 9.513 nC cm-2) was achieved by applying a 2.5 Hz mechanical drive of 5 N. Importantly, the triboelectric yarns can identify textile materials according to their different electron affinity energies. In addition, the triboelectric yarns are compatible with traditional textile technology and can be woven into a high-density plain fabric for harvesting biomechanical energy and are also competent for monitoring tiny signals from humans or insects.
Keywords: all-yarn-based; biomechanical energy harvesting; biomechanical signal sensing; electrospinning; single-electrode triboelectric yarn.